The chief executive of Qatar Airways has warned that disruption to the aviation industry will last for years as companies recover from the effects of the pandemic.
“Covid has damaged the industry supply chain. . . I think it will last for a couple of years, it will not go away tomorrow,” Akbar Al Baker told the Financial Times in an interview.
Labor shortages in Europe, delays in the delivery of aircraft from manufacturers and a lack of spare parts have affected Qatar Airways, he added.
Guillaume Faury, chief executive of the world’s biggest plane maker, Airbus, said last week that he expected supply chain problems to continue next year as manufacturers face shortages of raw materials, spare parts and electronic components.
In the case of Qatar Airways, it is the staff shortage in Europe that is having the biggest impact, Al Baker said, as the disruption to flights is having knock-on effects at the airline’s Doha hub.
This month Heathrow airport imposed an unprecedented passenger limit on airlines to try to avoid further disruptions, prompting a furious reaction from Qatar’s regional rival Emirates.
Al Baker sits on the board of London Heathrow as a representative of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, the airport’s shareholder.
He criticized Heathrow for not warning airlines more about the passenger limit, which he said was “very difficult to digest”. But he added that the problems were systemic across Europe, and not just at Heathrow.
Qatar Airways is also the largest shareholder in IAG, which owns British Airways, making Al Baker an influential figure in UK aviation.
He has previously been outspoken in his criticism of BA, but offered his full support to the airline’s chief executive, Sean Doyle. BA has suffered some of the worst outages this summer.
“IAG has great potential, and I’m sure that it won’t be long before they turn around and be what they were before the pandemic,” he said. “Note that they are doing a lot to improve standards and services,” he added.
IAG shares are trading around 70 percent below their pre-pandemic levels, and BA has been forced to cancel around 30,000 flights this year due to its own staffing problems and disruptions at the airports
Al Baker has also been embroiled in a legal battle with Airbus this year over a claim that one of its best-selling planes, the wide-body A350, is defective due to surface damage.
It said the dispute, which is being heard in London courts, will not prevent it from buying more Airbus planes in the future.
The manufacturer has said its planes are safe, noting that no other aircraft operator had grounded its planes.
Despite the pandemic and supply chain issues, Qatar Airways reported a rare industry profit of $1.5 billion in the year to the end of March, boosted by its cargo operations.
The airline continued to fly throughout the pandemic and even added routes to many destinations.